Erika Alexander Joins ‘Black Lightning’ For A Three-Episode Stint

Erika Alexander has joined the cast of ‘Black Lightning’ for a three-episode stint during the show’s second season. Alexander will play Perenna, an original character, who is a telepathic therapist that the Pierce family turns to help Jennifer (China Anne McClain) adjust to having her new powers. As you may recall, while older sis Anissa (Nafessa Williams) embraced her newfound abilities and even adopted her own super identity as Thunder, Jennifer wanted nothing to do with hers.

Alexander may be best remembered for her role as Max in the classic ’90s sitcom ‘Living Single’, but she has continued working steadily ever since, most recently on the shows ‘Queen Sugar’, ‘Bosch’, ‘Beyond’ and ‘Insecure’. She also appeared in last year’s breakout horror hit ‘Get Out’. She recently wrapped the thriller ‘I See You’ which stars Helen Hunt.

At New York Comic Con, McClain discussed Perenna and what brings her to the show:

“I love that they’re tackling it from that perspective of getting her a therapist because as you can see in Season One, Jennifer had so many psychological issues with getting these powers. She did not want them. She already felt like an outsider being a part of this amazing family, and living on the house on top of the hill, and so adding super powers on top of it just made things worse for her.”

“So bringing the therapist in really is gonna help her control her powers. Because she’s so powerful — her cells create pure energy — so if she gets really pissed off, that’s not gonna be a good situation. I don’t want to say too much on this topic because it’s something we’re filming right now.”

Perenna won’t be the only telepath joining ‘Black Lightning’ this year. Sofia Vassilieva will portray Looker, a character in the comics who operated as part of the team The Outsiders, alongside Black Lightning. In addition, Kearran Giovanni joins as another original character, Cutter, “a smart, proud, tough and beautiful woman more than able to best a man in combat — a mercenary trained by British intelligence.”

‘Black Lightning’ returns to The CW on Tuesday, October 9th, 2018 at 9pm EST, after ‘The Flash’.

Jax Motes

Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.